XCON: When and How to Use the Mtacheck Utility (148284)

SUMMARY

The Message Transfer Agent check utility (Mtacheck) is designed to provide a soft recovery of a corrupted MTA database. It is automatically installed when Microsoft Exchange Server is installed and can be found in the %Exchange_Root%\Bin directory. This utility should be used when the MTA service will not start due to corruption or suspected corruption in the MTA database.

MORE INFORMATION

Mtacheck must be run from a DOS VDM on the Microsoft Exchange Server. It is very simple to use and only has 2 parameter, /v and /f. The parameters and the results of their use are as follows:

Mtacheck.                  minimum logging.
Mtacheck /v                verbose logging.
Mtacheck /f <filename>     minimum logging that is saved to a text file.
Mtacheck /v /f <filename>  verbose logging that is saved to a text file.

For more information about the Mtacheck utility, please see pages 614-617 of the Microsoft Exchange Administrator's Guide and the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

149017 XCON: MTACheck Event IDs and Command Line Syntax

In Microsoft Exchange version 4.0 Service Pack 4 and Microsoft Exchange version 5.0, two switches were added to Mtacheck.

Mtacheck /rd            removes directory replication messages.
Mtacheck /rp            removes public folder replication messages.

In Microsoft Exchange version 5.0, another switch was added:

Mtacheck /RL            removes unwanted Link Monitor messages